Meeting Explore S Drug Abuse Among Jews For Too Long, Jews Have Been Unwilling To Recognize That Drug And Alcohol Abuse Is A Common Problem. An All-day Conference Sunday In Tamarac Is The First Step Locally To Address That Problem.

February 8, 1985|By James D. Davis, Religion Writer

``To life, to life, L`Chayim,`` the characters sing in Fiddler on the Roof as they get stumbling, giggling drunk.

It`s a well-known sequence in the movie, but it leaves some Jews unamused. They are recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. And though they number in the tens of thousands, the Jewish community is just beginning to admit they exist.

Time and again, rabbis, friends and even families react similarly: ``There`s no such thing. Maybe over-indulgence, but . . . Jews just don`t become alcoholics.``

``The denial is so strong because Judaism is so big on discipline,`` says Rabbi Albert Schwartz, chairman of the Task Force on Jewish Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, which is sponsoring a conference on the problem Sunday.

``All our activities have strong regulatory features, such as our holidays and life cycle events. If anything breaks or destroys those, it can damage Judaism.``

The first-ever Conference on Florida Jewish Drug and Alcohol Abuse is set for Sunday at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tamarac Jewish Center, 9101 NW 57th St. It will draw experts from organizations in New York and South Florida, two of the largest Jewish areas in the world.

Topics will include ``chemical dependency`` -- the current euphemism for addiction to alcohol and other drugs -- among young people, professionals, seniors and other classes. Several recovering alcoholics also will tell their stories.

So strong is the stigma that no one knows how many Jewish alcoholics live in South Florida, said Schwartz, whose task force covers Broward, Palm Beach and Dade counties. However, studies indicate that the disease affects one out of every 10 Jews, the same as the general population.

Among the 500,000 Jews in South Florida, therefore, there may be 50,000 alcoholics. And in a synagogue with as few as 100 members, there may be 10 alcoholics.

Connected with discipline is the Jewish ethic of moderation, Schwartz says. Wine is blessed in the weekly Kiddush or home Sabbath service. Wine is also part of weddings and the Passover dinner -- and Purim, the Festival of Esther, even sanctions drunken celebration.

``Wine has become a cultural and religious expression,`` the rabbi says. ``You don`t just sit for a social drink with your friends. You perform a religious function.``

But Jewish attitudes toward drinking have always been ambivalent. King David wrote a psalm praising wine, which ``maketh the heart glad.`` But his son, Solomon, wrote that ``wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; whoever is deceived thereby is not wise.``

That so many Jews are deceived is one of the more difficult things to deal with, some say.

``I don`t know how this will sound, but we usually think Jews are too smart to get caught by alcoholism,`` says Lisa S., a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. ``We`re educated professionals. We`re people of the Book. We`re part of a community that is repulsed by excessive drinking.``

Lisa is, by most definitions, a survivor: She fled her native Austria at 13 to escape Hitler`s Holocaust. She says alcohol gave her respite from the ``guilt`` of surviving, while so many other Jews died in Europe.

She attended synagogue, her children went through bar mitzvah, but she found no help for her problem: When she confessed it to her rabbi, ``he nearly fell out of his chair. He couldn`t wait for me to get out of there.``

She was driven to call AA only when her son described how to commit suicide -- and began knotting a rope into a noose.

Just as alarming is the fact that possibly 90 percent of all Jews mix alcohol with drugs, especially prescription pain-killers and sedatives. The finding, by a New York group for drug users, helped broaden the scope of the local conference to ``substance abuse`` rather than just alcoholism.

As the first people to canonize the role of the medical practitioner, Jews are particularly vulnerable, Schwartz says. He adds that, being relatively affluent, Jews are more prone to consult a specialist when they feel out of sorts.

Condominiums for retirees conceal a major drug problem, the conferees say. ``Many elderly people shop around to various doctors to keep supplied with prescriptions,`` says Dr. Herman Weiss, one of the conference planners. ``A lot of them say they need sedatives to help them sleep, despite the fact that older people don`t need as much sleep.``

Area counselors say they have seen people using four drugs at a time, in addition to alcohol. At best, the abuse complicates withdrawal. At worst, the drugs can interact with deadly effect. Alcohol with codeine can suppress the involuntary muscles that control breathing. Valium speeds up the drunken reactions to alcohol.

And alcohol with cocaine -- South Florida`s particular bane -- can send a person on a roller coaster of highs and lows, says psychiatrist Irl Extein, medical director at the new Fair Oaks Hospital in Delray Beach.